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Bitch Talks: Speakers and Workshop Facilitators

We get it. When people hear “speaking engagement” they automatically think of jargon-filled slideshows and monotonous, khaki-wearing experts.

Luckily for you, this is Bitch we’re talking about.

Bitch speakers bring the best of Bitch Media (sarcasm, sass, and all) to campuses and community spaces all over the country, hosting talks and workshops on feminist activism, sexism in the media, and race and representation. So whether you’re a group of students that want to bring some Bitchy critique to your classroom, or a community organizer looking to start feminist-centered conversations locally, Bitch speakers can help you get started. From online feminism to pop music to reproductive rights, Bitch speakers deliver smart, engaging, and no-bullshit talks and workshops that promote activism and impel social change. (Just note that, because we are committed to intersectional feminism, Bitch speakers don’t appear on all-white panels.)

In the space of a few short years, feminism—an ideology debated, derided, and declared dead by mainstream media for decades—has suddenly become a hot media commodity. Celebrities love it; advertisers want it; fashion designers praise it. But what is this new feminism, and is it really about equality—or just commerce? This talk discusses the slow shift from the insurgent, collective power of Riot Grrrl to the new market-friendly feminism, and questions what we can learn from both.

• Don’t Just Change the Channel: Why Pop Culture Matters to Feminism, Activism, and Social Justice

A stock response to complaints about offensive and demeaning representation of women and others in popular media is often, “Well, just change the channel! You don’t have to watch that show/read that book/see that movie.” That line of thinking usually ignores the reality of how media and pop culture permeate every aspect of our lives. Pop culture has long been central to feminist activism, and this presentation looks at this phenomenon with an eye to both history and the present day, noting the ways in which representation—or the lack thereof—has been a key catalyst of feminist action. From the Miss America protest of 1968 to the Saturday Night Live pushback of today, we’ll look at how foregrounding a feminist perspective in media and pop culture makes that culture better, richer, and more representative of the world in which we live.

Evette Dionne

Evette Dionne is Bitch Media’s editor-in-chief. She’s also a Black feminist culture writer and scholar whose been published in the New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, SELF Magazine, Teen Vogue, Bustle, Hello Beautiful, The Root, and more. Before joining Bitch Media, Evette worked as a founding senior editor at Revelist. She received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Bennett College, and her master’s in media management and women, gender, and sexuality studies from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

• Too Fat for TV

This talk examines how media represents fat people, especially Black fat people. We delve into the history of fat people on TV, the tropes that have been associated with fat people, and how fat people have begun fighting against those representations through the fat acceptance movement.

• Why Body Positivity is Failing

Body positivity is popping up all over the place, from designer brand campaigns to Instagram, but how does body positivity interact with feminism? Where is it going? This talk argues that as body positivity has become mainstream, its meaning has become muddled. Instead of pushing to put more fat people, people of color, disabled people, trans people, and those whose bodies are maligned at the center, body positivity has centered thinner women. This talk focuses on how body positivity can find its meaning again.

Soraya Membreno

Soraya Membreno is Bitch Media’s director of community. She is the daughter of Nicaraguan immigrants and a pre-Lebron Miami native. She writes about issues of accessibility, representation, and culture-straddling/identity building in literature and academia. Her writing has appeared in Catapult, Post No Ills, and The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind.

• Building a Feminist Community

We talk about community a lot here at Bitch, but how do you actually build one? This talk is part Bitch Media history, part how-to workshop for building a feminist community that is accessible, inclusive, and intergenerational. How can we build upon collective history to come together and make space for one another? And once we have, what do we do with it?

• These Are The Things No One Tells You: On Navigating PWI’s and What Comes After

This talk recounts the experience of attending a predominantly white institution as a first-generation immigrant. Full of all the things no college counselor will tell you, participants will be encouraged to enter into open dialogue about the details of assimilation, feelings of tokenization, fitting into a new environment while still maintaining ties to home, and how being fully yourself can be an act of radical resistance.

Joshunda Sanders

Joshunda Sanders is an author and proud Bronx native. She was the recipient of a Hedgebrook Residency in 2017. Her work has appeared in the Bellevue Literary Review, Teen Vogue, Salon, Publishers Weekly, Bitch Magazine, Gawker, The Week, The UTNE Reader, Kirkus Reviews, on NPR and in dozens of anthologies, newspapers, magazines, websites, textbooks and encyclopedias. She gave a TED talk in 2013, the same year she presented at South by Southwest Interactive. Her publications include: Single & Happy: The Party of Ones, How Racism and Sexism Killed Traditional Media: Why the Future of Journalism Depends on Women and People of Color, the novella, All City and a memoir, The Beautiful Darkness: A Handbook for Orphans. She is writing a sequel to All City & a collection of short stories & a work of historical fiction. She lives in New York City.

• The Personal is Political: Finding the Social-Change Narrative Within

We have all heard the saying and promise that one person can change the world. Tapping our innate personal power in order to begin a lifetime of social change work is the most significant part of this journey. But where do you begin? With your personal narrative, which influences and intersects with a part of the American political narrative.

Freedom is a lofty goal for many of us and an unattainable one for most. This is most evident when feminists across genders express, share and promote themselves online. While we are free to do so, navigating the challenges—including trolls, mansplaining and pushback—is part of what comes with that freedom.

That stereotype still influences how America views black women is made clear by examining discussions surrounding black women in the public eye. This presentation uses media coverage of tennis superstar, Serena Williams, and other high-profile black women, to illustrate this fact.

• Black Women: Writing Our Stories (Workshop)

Great for intimate groups of black women. This workshop encourages women to use writing for self-expression and emotional healing. Participants will respond to writing prompts inspired by The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America, sharing personal stories and providing feedback to one another. Tamara will talk about writing as a form of black female self-care and offer hints on crafting a writing life.